Works (CSEL) 2

We have undertaken with the present pen to write an apology for the prophet David—not that he needs this service, who shone with such great merits and flourished with virtues, but because very many, having read the series of his deeds without looking into the force of the Scriptures or the hidden things of the mysteries, marvel how so great a prophet did not avoid the contagion first of adultery, then of homicide. Therefore it has been our care to review the history itself, which seems to lie open to sin. For in the second book of Kingdoms we read that David, walking in his royal house, looked out upon a woman bathing—her name was Bathsheba—of outstanding form and of grace, comely of countenance and of exceedingly remarkable appearance; that, charmed by these allurements, he conceived a desire to possess her.

Now the woman was married to a husband; Uriah was the name of the husband, for whom, by royal commands, the scene of slaying was arranged. For although his life was reckoned no impediment to the king's lust, yet it was reckoned to stand greatly in the way of the shame of adultery. And so, that we may begin from things more plain: him whom God has justified, do not you judge. It is a very small thing to me, says Paul, that I should be judged by you or by any human day, but neither do I judge myself. And he was still set in the body, still subject to temptation, but for this reason he did not judge himself, because the spiritual man is judged by no one except God alone. Finally he added: He who judges me is the Lord. And so do not judge anything before the time.

But David has already fulfilled the time and merited grace and been justified by Christ, since the Lord himself rejoiced that David should be called his son, and those who so confessed him were enlightened. Why do you summon a man of God from reward to judgment? The Lord has already judged concerning him, of whom he said to Solomon: If you will walk in my sight, as David your father walked, in holiness of heart and in justice, so as to do according to all that I commanded him. Is this man, then, worthy of judgment or of reward, who did according to all the heavenly commandments, walking in holiness and in justice of heart? Where the sins and vices of others lie hidden, there David received the divine testimony of his virtue and glory.

And we, idle, dispute about his sin, for whose merit and grace the sins of others were revealed! For when Solomon had offended, because he had not kept the commandments of the Lord, and God had purposed to rend his kingdom into very many parts, he said to him: Yet nevertheless in your days I will not do these things, for the sake of David your father. From the hand of your son I will take it. Yet nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom; one scepter I will give for the sake of David my servant. Since, then, the Lord justifies, who is it that so judges such a man? What God has cleansed, he says, do not call common. Yet, the heavenly judgment being preserved—by which you yourself should honor so great a prophet—enter into his acts and his ways.

Do you not marvel at a man, and judge him to be made equal even to the angels for very much of his life—nay, from boyhood lingering amid riches, honors, and dominions, set in many temptations—that he gave place to error only once, and to that error by which even the angels of heaven, as Scripture records, were cast down from their grace and virtue? Indeed, another error of his too is read of: that he caused the people to be numbered. Each one of us, through each single hour, how many things does he transgress in, and yet each one of the common people does not think his sin ought to be confessed; but that king, so great and powerful, did not allow the consciousness of his offense to remain with him even for the briefest moment, but by a premature confession and by immeasurable grief he restored his sin to the Lord.

Whom now would you easily find for me, honored and rich, who, if he were accused as guilty of some fault, would not take it ill? But that man, illustrious in royal dominion, approved by so many divine oracles, when he was rebuked by a private man for having gravely transgressed, did not, indignant, growl in fury, but, confessing, groaned with the grief of his guilt. Finally, the grief of his inmost feeling moved the Lord, so that he said through Nathan: Because you have repented, the Lord also has transferred your sin. Thus the swiftness of pardon declared that the repentance of the king had been profound, which carried off the offense of so great an error. Other men, when they are rebuked by the priests, aggravate their sin while they wish to deny or to defend it, and there their fall is greater, where correction is hoped for.

But the saints of the Lord, who eagerly desire to consummate the godly contest and to run the course of salvation, if perhaps anywhere, as men, they have fallen more by the frailty of nature than by the lust of sinning, rise up the more keenly to run, by the goad of shame repairing greater contests, so that the fall is reckoned not only to have brought no impediment, but even to have heaped up incentives of swiftness. Therefore, if for those running the course is not dissolved when some have perchance fallen, neither is the striving of those wrestling, but the contests remain unhindered; nay rather, very many after one or another fall have conquered with greater grace.

How much more ought those who have entered the contest of godliness not to be appraised by the offense of a single fall, since blessed is he who has been able to repair himself after a fall, seeing that to rise again even after death is the privilege of the blessed. In another way too we can grasp that sin can be of profit, and that by the providence of the Lord transgressions have crept upon the saints. For they are set before us for imitation, and therefore care was taken that they too should sometimes fall.

For if they had passed through the course amid so many slippery things of this world unscathed by vices, they would have given us weaker ones occasion to suppose that they were of some higher and divine nature, such that they could not incur sin nor have fellowship in guilt—an opinion which would surely call us back, as having no share in that substance, from an impossible imitation. For a little while, therefore, the grace of God passed them by, so that their life might become for us a discipline unto imitation, and that, as of innocence, so also of penitence, we might take instruction from their deeds. Therefore, while I read of their fall, I recognize them also to be partakers of weakness; while I believe them partakers, I presume that they are to be imitated.

The apostle Paul also reminds us that the Lord our God provided that the human affection, even in the saints, should not be exalted either by the sublimity of revelations or by the continuing success of their works, nor that they should reckon to themselves and attribute to their own virtue what had been conferred upon them by divine operation. Therefore, lest they should rush into so great a judgment and fall into the pit of perfidy, the Lord allowed guilt to creep upon them, so that they too might observe that they needed divine aids, and might recognize that the captain of their salvation must be sought. Finally, Paul testifies that weakness profited him, when the Lord said to him as he prayed that the thorn of his flesh might depart from him: My grace is sufficient for you; for virtue is perfected in weakness.

And deservedly he glories in his weaknesses; for he knew that, by abundance of virtue, very many even of the saints had fallen without remedy. How much more advantageously, then, to have given place to one or two rebukes than to have drawn upon himself the perpetual offense of the divinity! Why should I also add those things which we can conjecture from the very practice of the world: that, when we have approved many in some office, we wish to try the same men, as industrious and energetic, in another duty? How many athletes, when they have prevailed in this kind of contest, are summoned to another kind of contest! What if the Lord your God too, when you have given some specimen of your virtue, wishes to prove you in another kind of virtues?

He allowed holy Job, running unhindered, nevertheless to be tempted by the destruction of his children and by ulcers over his whole body, so that in this too he might prove his virtue—whether, even when constrained by injuries and bitter things, he would not diminish the devotion of his affection. Is it not clear that he also wished to prove holy David, noble in faith, most outstanding in gentleness, strong in hand—how he would cover his fault, amend his fall, so that he might teach us how we might cover the sin we have committed? Unless perhaps the cause seems base to someone, that for the sake of our correction so great a prophet should have erred, when for the sake of the redemption of all Christ took upon himself our weaknesses—he who was made sin for us, although he knew no sin.

And it is reckoned unworthy, nor believed likely, that David, for the sake of posterity's profit, should have incurred the reproach of a single fall, when the Lord himself was made a reproach for us, as he himself says: But I am a worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people; and elsewhere: And the reproaches of those who reproached fell upon me? Therefore he sent before, in his own people, the mystery of the future dispensation, and the sins indeed of his servile condition they bore, and therefore they too could not be exempt from sin: but the Lord took up a burden not his own, and therefore he alone was without fellowship of transgressions. In sum, the apostle too teaching us, we have learned that very many things were done in figure which were done in former times.

For when he had said that the fathers in the desert, wounded by serpents, could not be healed otherwise unless Moses had hung up the bronze serpent, by the sight of which those deadly bites and harmful infusions of venom were cured, he subjoined: But these things were done in figure for them, unto our correction. In figure the bronze serpent was as it were fastened to the cross, because the true one was being announced to the human race as about to be crucified, who would empty out the venom of the serpent, the devil—in figure accursed, but in truth he who would blot out the curses of the whole world. Elsewhere too, that is, to the Galatians, he says that Abraham had two sons, one of the bondwoman and one of the freewoman; and he added:

But the one indeed who was born of the slave-girl was born according to the flesh, while the one born of the free woman was born through the promise. These things are spoken by way of allegory. What the allegory signifies the Apostle expounded plainly in what follows, saying that those two generations — one of the slave-girl, the other of the free woman — are two covenants: the one indeed from Mount Sinai, begetting unto bondage, on which mountain Moses received the Law from the Lord; the other from Jerusalem, which is free, which begot her sons in Isaac, that is, in the freedom of grace, not in the bondage of the letter. For to slaves a penalty is decreed, but upon the free grace is conferred. Did not Jacob too, as a type of the twofold people, take two wives, from whom he begot a diverse offspring?

Why is it recorded that the patriarch Judah, after the death of his son, sought intercourse with his own daughter-in-law, by which the birth of twins was brought forth — unless it was that a figure might foreshadow the two covenants of the Lord Jesus? Of these the one was established as a type of His future death, the other in the truth of the Gospel, signifying that two peoples were to be begotten, of whom the later, under the sign of the cross, would break down all the hedge and fortification of the earlier people — this is the people first by the hand but later in birth — or because the Lord Jesus Himself, born of the tribe of Judah, sent His works before Him ere He was born for us of the Virgin?

What shall I say of Joseph, who, assailed by his brothers, stripped of his father's garment, cast into the pit, and sold into slavery, set forth a clear sign of the Lord's incarnation — in that he, the beloved of his father, though he was in the form of God, did not count it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, that taking the form of a servant He might come and humble Himself even unto the death of the cross, by whose price, both bought and sold by his own brothers, He redeemed the human race? In whose type also David, the youngest, was chosen from among his brothers, anointed to the kingdom; alone, amid the grave peril of war, by single combat he delivered the whole people and triumphed over ten thousands, so that the maidens sang with timbrels:

'Saul has triumphed over thousands, David over ten thousands.' What is the figure in those young women but that of the souls who sing a triumphant psalm to Christ? He begot from himself sons, one guilty of incest and another a parricide, because the incestuous and parricidal people was about to do violence to the flesh of its own Author, fastened to the gibbet of the cross. Hence in the third psalm the title of Absalom is set before it, and the Lord's passion is prophesied. What shall I say of holy Solomon, whose latter deeds are not free from grave error, yet whom the Jewish multitude reckons to have come in place of Christ? And how many has the offense of his grave error called back! And so his greater fault profited the more, lest one who had not been free from human vice should be believed to be above man.

There was therefore in him an enviable wisdom and a persuasive fault, which proved him to be a man. What then prevents us from believing that Bathsheba too was joined to holy David in a figure, so that there might be signified the gathering of the nations, which was not united to Christ by any lawful wedlock of faith — a people that, for His grace, was to enter beyond the prescription of the Law, by certain forbidden thresholds; in whom the naked sincerity of mind and open simplicity, by the justifying mystery of the laver, would draw over the mind of the true David and eternal King, and provoke His love? Rightly did He come hidden, He who would deceive the prince of the world, even as that Uriah, who by interpretation is called 'my light,' transforming himself into an angel of light.

He came, I say, into this world, and came hidden; He entered as an adulterer, that He might claim a lawful right. We have, as we judge, distinguished the strong allegations, and have proved that the text of this history was set forth in figure: now let us return to what comes earlier, and let us examine the error as it were stripped of its spiritual garments. David sinned, as kings are wont to do; but he did penance, he wept, he groaned, as kings are not wont to do; he confessed his fault, he implored pardon, prostrate on the ground he lamented his misery, he fasted, he prayed, and transmitted the testimony of his confession to all ages by his published grief. What private men blush to do, the king did not blush to confess.

Those who are held by laws dare to deny their own sin and disdain to ask for pardon, which he sought who was held by no human laws. That he sinned belongs to his condition; that he made supplication belongs to his amendment. The fall was common, but the confession was singular. To have incurred fault, therefore, belongs to nature; to have washed it away belongs to virtue. 'Who glories,' he says, 'that he has a clean heart?' Not even an infant of a single day is declared to be clean, by the testimony of Scripture. Give me anyone without the lapse of a fault. Samson is recorded as the strongest of all, who even strangled a lion with his bare hands; but would that he had been able to choke his own passion! He burned the harvests of the Philistines, yet he himself was set ablaze by the little fire of one woman.

Jephthah returned victorious from the enemy, but, bearing back the standards of triumph, he was conquered by his own oath, so that he thought the affection of his daughter coming to meet him must be requited by parricide. First of all, what need was there to swear so rashly and to vow uncertain things in place of certain, whose outcome he did not know? Then, does anyone pay sad oaths to the Lord God, so as to discharge his vows by bloody funerals? Nor do I think the priests should be passed over in silence — lest I seem to conceal our own faults. Aaron himself, the high priest, under whose leadership, together with Moses, the Hebrew people passed the Red Sea on foot, when asked by the people to make them gods whom they might worship, demanded gold, cast it into the fire, and the head of a calf was fashioned, to which sacrifices were offered.

By which token it became clear that the lust for gold is the matter of perfidy, and that sacrileges are wont to be engendered by the zeal of avarice. Again, so great a priest fell into an occasion of offense together with his sister Miriam. For while both detracted from their brother, because he had taken a foreign wife, immediately Miriam broke out with the contagion of spotted flesh. In which place there was a figure of a manifest mystery: namely, that the priestly people of the fathers should in later times disparage their brother people, not knowing the sacrament of that Ethiopian woman. For had they known it, they would not have reproached what accorded with the ancient mystery.

And so, when the Jew calls one who has believed from among the Gentiles 'common,' and wishes to separate him from the Law, he has leprosy, which he will not be able to escape, unless the recognition of the spiritual law shall have availed him unto pardon. Therefore David too, who knew that he had been born a man liable to fall, asked for pardon, yet did not despair of the Lord's mercy. Nor does the parable seem to differ from the mystery. For who is the rich man but our Lord Jesus, who says of Himself, as has been read today, that 'a certain man, being rich, went into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return'?

And truly He was rich with the wealth of His own majesty and with the fullness of His own divinity, whom angels and archangels, virtues and powers and principalities, thrones and dominions, the Cherubim and Seraphim served with untiring homage. Yet, although He was rich, He left the ninety-nine sheep upon the mountains, and sought out the one sheep which had remained behind, wearied. This sheep the prince of this world, needy and poor in comparison with that rich One, was nourishing as it were a daughter with his own food. Rightly therefore had he failed, for whom the substance was the food of the world. This sheep had gone astray in Adam, enticed by the wiles of the serpent. And it was not a bad sheep, for it was full of the word, being, as it were, the rational daughter of the seventh-day rest and the gift of the holy Author:

yet it was fed not on any precious things, but on the cheap and meager resources of the poor man. In short, 'it ate of his bread,' He says, 'and drank of his cup, and slept in his bosom.' Not good is the food of the Ethiopians; harmful is the golden cup, Babylon, which makes the nations drunk; not profitable is the sleep of those who slumber — I prefer to keep watch. In short, 'all the foolish of heart were troubled; they slept their sleep, and found nothing.' Therefore for the sake of hospitality, because he had received a guest, that he might set a feast before him, he took away that poor man's sheep; for if he had sacrificed any animal from his own flocks or herds, it could not have profited us, whom, unless He had sacrificed Himself, He would not have redeemed.

Therefore the infirmities of our frailty He took upon His own flesh with a certain hospitable affection, and to relieve, or rather to restore them, He offered His own flesh to that saving passion, that He might provide us with the food of eternal life. And well did Scripture say 'a ewe-lamb,' because it was the offspring of a Virgin. Well is this rich man pronounced worthy of death by the prophetic judgment, because Caiaphas too prophesied, saying, 'It is expedient that one man die for the people.' But the Lord Jesus alone was chosen worthy of such a death, by which He might take away the sin of the world. Beautifully too he added, 'He shall restore the lamb,' because He raised up His own flesh, He gave back that flesh of virginal integrity. Nor is that idle which he says: 'He shall restore fourfold';

for the resurrection of the dead is quadrupled, as the Apostle teaches, saying: 'It is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it rises in glory; it is sown in weakness, it rises in power; it is sown a natural body, it rises a spiritual body.' He shall surely restore the lamb fourfold also in that manner in which a man can now say: 'If I have taken anything from anyone, I restore fourfold.' Fittingly too he added: 'because he did not spare'; for Christ did not spare Himself, that He might succor all. And therefore it was said by the Lord Jesus Christ to His servant David, to make manifest the mystery: 'Since you have done this in secret, I also will do this word before all Israel and in the sight of this sun.'

And indeed at first, not knowing the sacrament, David was stirred with indignation, but he did not err in his affection. But afterward, when he came to know the great mystery — for great is the sacrament of Christ and the Church — seeing the future remission of all sins, foreseeing the splendor of grace through the laver of regeneration and the infusion of the Holy Spirit, he said, secure of pardon: 'I have sinned against the Lord,' that he too might enter into the fellowship of those to whom the remission of guilt would come. Do you notice how he lamented his own sin? Who then should wonder that it was forgiven him? Now let us consider his works, by which he was able to cover his sin. For since human frailty cannot be without sin, care must be taken lest the sins be more than the works of virtue.

This holy Paul expressed with the great force of his wisdom, saying: 'The sins of some men are manifest, going before to judgment; but some men they also follow after' — that is: no one is found unstained by fault; one has good merits, he has also vices and sins. All our deeds, therefore, are as it were weighed in a balance. If, then, the sins outweigh the good deeds, they go before to judgment; for sins sink as it were into the depths — they sink which are manifest, whether by their weight and bitterness or by their multitude. 'But some men,' he says, 'they also follow after' — that is, those who have conducted themselves soberly, but through the frailty of their condition have sometimes given place even to error: their good deeds go before, their evils follow after.

These are the more honorable, yet nonetheless men who have lapsed into lighter vices and errors. Therefore sins follow the just; they do not go before them: they go before the unjust. The sins that sink outweigh, but if any right deeds have been done, they follow weighed down as it were by a certain prejudgment of the preceding sins. Likewise good deeds too are manifest. For they shine by the work of virtues and the splendor of merits, and those which are otherwise cannot be hidden. Therefore such deeds are not covered, charity that covers a multitude of sins does not overshadow them, the grace of good works does not cover them, the multitude of virtues does not conceal them: as it were naked and uncovered they are brought forth. For there is not among these one who may say: 'Protect me under the shadow of your wings';

for the cross of the Lord abolishes and hides all errors. Who then has covered and concealed more than holy David, who elsewhere also says: 'And in the shadow of your wings will I hope, until iniquity pass away,' and so loved the Lord that by his exceeding charity he covered and hid every sin? For if holy Peter the Apostle abolished his lapse by the confession of his love, and he, being questioned by the Lord who said to him three times, 'Simon, son of John, do you love Me?', that whom he had thrice denied he might thrice confess, and thus by a certain threefold veil of love hide the lapse of his threefold denial:

if, because Peter wept once, he won pardon, how much more David, who washed his bed every single night and watered his couch with his tears, whose tears were his bread day and night, who ate ashes like bread and mingled his drink with weeping! For if Jesus has mercy on him who, being converted, has groaned, if He looked upon Peter and he wept, how much more did he who long wept never depart from the sight of the Lord? Peter denied and did not weep, because Jesus had not looked upon him; he denied a second time and did not weep, because the Lord had not looked upon him; he denied a third time, Jesus looked upon him, and immediately he wept, and wept most bitterly. Therefore David, who always wept, was saying:

'My eyes are ever toward the Lord,' he who was ever seen by Christ, was saying: 'My eyes have run down through the streams of waters.' But now let us also consider his deeds. Who would not overshadow the odium of one crime by the praise of so many virtues? Chosen by the divine examination, he straightway proved himself not unworthy of so great a judgment. He went forth into battle, and while the rest trembled, he alone, by faith and courage joined together, laid low the Philistine Goliath, terrible by the boasting of his words and by the mass of his monstrous body, who rushed upon him. The fortitude of one became the victory of all. Let there be compared, if you please, the private crime and the triumph of all, the death of one and the life of so many peoples whom he delivered from death. Let us come to other things. He suffered plots from the king;

the king sought to extinguish his life, but by the divine ordering, when the king was delivered into his power and lay wholly open to a wound, holy David ran to meet his companions who were about to strike, and turned aside the deadly wound from the body of the man who was to perish, saying: 'Do not touch the Lord's anointed.' Nay more, he avenged the death of that very enemy of his, he lamented his destruction tearfully enough, and he long deferred the rule due to him, because he knew it was owed to him with God as its Author. By this alone he taught all men that the kingdom is not to be snatched, even if it be due, but is to be awaited, that in its own time it may be conferred. Would that posterity had imitated this man! We should not have endured such great bitternesses of wars.

You accuse him because he killed one man; you do not consider that he taught how perpetual peace might be preserved for the Roman world. With what grievous devastation do we still pay the penalty! With what public funeral, as it were, of the whole world have we paid for the murder of an emperor that was sought! Alas, the harsh punishments! Hence the barbarian foe still insults us, while the arms made ready against him are turned upon us. Thus the public strength has fallen, thus Roman valor, broken by its own commotions, has grown old, while it is snatched away by public parricide — a thing that is undertaken under the guise of fatherly solicitude. And so far did he take precaution against this, that when he learned that his son Adonijah was usurping the kingdom for himself and sowing conspiracies, he chose not the one who was striving to snatch it away, but the one who would wait.

The most powerful of kings danced before the ark of the Lord; and when he was reproached by his own wife because he had been stripped bare before the face of the maidservants, he answered: 'I will yet be more bared before the Lord, and I will be a trifling thing before your eyes, that the Lord may be honored,' he says, 'who chose me before your father for the kingdom' — teaching that the regard of royal power is not to be held where homage is rendered to religion. For it is honorable to act for the sake of religion, even if it be unbecoming to one's power. Behold another memorable thing. A parricide son had violently invaded his father's kingdom. The father at first gave way to his fury and avoided the place of battle, that even thus the impious one might come to his senses from his frenzy. He was unwilling even to take part in the war; he begged those who were setting out to battle that they would spare his son.

He was secure of victory, who begged that they would spare; nor was he a stranger to natural affection, who did not think that even his impious son ought to perish. He wept and with great grief lamented the death of the parricide, saying: 'My son Absalom, who will give me death in your stead, my son Absalom?' He thought that one ought to be avenged who had been slain for the vengeance of fatherly affection. How patient indeed of injury and of grief was he! He gave way, that, as I said, hemmed in by the fury of his son Absalom, with valiant warriors on his right hand and his left, a man whose name was Shimei cursed him, calling him a bloody man and a man of blood, justly cast down from the kingdom by the judgment of the Lord: but he was not even moved by such reproaches, though his companions were moved.

In short, one of his companions — Abishai was the man's name — threatened that he would take off the man's head as the price of the injury. But the king, turning to Abishai, said: 'What is it to me and to you, son of Zeruiah? Therefore he curses me, because the Lord has told him to curse.' How morally he taught that the times of our injuries or dangers are the contests of temptations and the trials of probations, and that therefore they are not wont to be inflicted without the divine judgment! The good athlete is exercised by reproaches, he is exercised by labors and dangers, that he may be worthy of the crown of righteousness to be conferred on him. And therefore the things that are thought adverse must be borne patiently. In short, divine Scripture teaches you this elsewhere also, when it says to the just man:

'If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, why should we not also endure the evil things?' And the holy prophet added, saying: 'Behold, my son, who came forth from my womb, seeks my life. But if the Benjamite curses me, let him alone that he may curse, since the Lord has told him to, that He may see my humiliation, and the Lord will repay me good for this cursing.' O depth of prudence, O signal mark of patience, O great device for swallowing down insult! 'Are you moved, Abishai,' he says, 'because a stranger curses me, whom my son seeks with parricide? The Lord has told him to curse me. But the Lord is not given to cursing, nor does He delight in insults.' See how carefully he guards each point.

He does not accuse the Lord as the author of the injury, but rather praises Him because he suffers it. We are to endure lesser things, that we may obtain pardon of greater sins. Behold, the verbal insult of the parricide lightened his affliction, it absolved the impudent man, whose curses profit the more, being granted with a divine recompense. Who would not compensate himself for such an injury, that whom man had hurt, God might console with the recompense of better things? Let us also consider his other deeds. He fought against the offspring of giants, when one of them had almost struck down the king as he was engaged in battle; yet the daring adversary paid for it with the price of his received death.

This triumph too over the fierce conquered nation having been won, again in the valley of the Titans he undertook a fearful war, no less against the enemy than against nature. For being thirsty while he was engaged in war, he had nothing to drink. 'Who,' he says, 'will give me drink from the cistern that is in Bethlehem by the gates?' But between the cistern and holy David there flowed the enemy and the midst of the hostile camp's enclosures. Three men cut through the multitude of the adversaries and filled water from the cistern that was in Bethlehem, and offered it to the king to drink.

But the king refused to drink and poured it out to the Lord — for it was worthy of so great a service that what was a token of living valor should become a sacrifice of piety — and he uttered a saying worthy of the prophetic spirit: 'Let it not befall me to do this, that I should drink the blood of the men who went out at the peril of their lives.' He conquered nature, therefore, so that though thirsty he did not drink, and he gave an example from himself by which the whole army might learn to endure thirst. He also trained his subjects to the office of virtue, so that even through dangers the soldiers might obey the royal command as volunteers.

But that he refused to drink declared that he had given the command for the sake of proving the soldiers, not by the necessity of conquering his thirst; that he had also taken precaution lest the use of drinking be sought by any of the kings at the peril of others; and finally that he had deprecated the wound of a pious conscience, because water sought at the cost of so many men's blood could not have the sweetness of drinking, consisting as it did of the horror of death set before him. But if you wish to look more deeply and to examine the mystery within: David thirsted not for water from the cistern that is in Bethlehem, but in spirit he foresaw Christ, who would spring from the Virgin. He wished, therefore, to drink not the water of the stream, but the draught of spiritual grace — that is, he thirsted not for the element of waters, but for the blood of Christ.

In short, he did not drink the water offered, but poured it out to the Lord, signifying that he thirsted for the sacrifice of Christ, not for the stream of nature — that sacrifice in which there should be the remission of sins; that he thirsted for that eternal fountain, which was not sought at the peril of others, but which would drive away the perils of others. Shall we then not believe that by so many and so wondrous works the blood of one man was covered? Rightly the voice of the blood of righteous Abel cried to the Lord, because impious Cain was covered by no good works, because he was a parricide, because he did not confess his crime but rather denied it. But David indeed had slain a man by no means guilty, yet he had slain him not impelled by zeal for cruelty, but to overshadow his shame and cover the disgrace of his concupiscence.

I do not dare to say that he was overwhelmed by the force of the crime — for he was not overwhelmed who knew how he might raise himself from that ruin of sin — yet I do say that he was bent by the force of temptation. For he had said above: 'Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart,' and elsewhere: 'But I said in my abundance, I shall not be moved forever,' and: 'You have tested me with fire, and no iniquity has been found in me.' The Lord willed that he should be subject to temptation, lest he should arrogate to himself anything above man; for strength is made perfect in weakness. For he did not act with a bloody affection:

nothing less can be ascribed to the holy prophet, who, even as he was departing from life, with his last words charged his son Solomon to take away from himself the innocent blood which Joab, the commander of his army, had shed — when Abner, while he was treating concerning the entering of an alliance, fell, beset by the treacheries of a leader, albeit of the opposing battle-line. Him he wept, and walking behind his bier, having laid aside the insignia of his power, he saw to the rites of the funeral. By which deed he taught that good faith promised is to be kept even toward adversaries, and that valor is to be honored even in an enemy. Did he not, with the inheritance of so gentle a piety, also wipe away the blemish of this error?

How illustrious too was it that, when three conditions were offered him to choose whichever he would, when by numbering the people he had incurred offense — when it was set before him whether he would have famine come upon the land for three years, or flee for three months from the face of his pursuing enemies, or have death come upon the land for three days — he chose the third, because he would rather commit himself to the power of the Lord than of men; for the Lord, swiftly moved to mercy, would pardon. And so he says: 'I am in great straits in these three things, but rather let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercy is very great, than fall into the hands of men.' By this humility, prudence, and meekness he brought it about — to use the words of Scripture — that the Lord had repentance of His own commotion.

In short, it is thus written that 'the Lord had repentance over the calamity.' How truly admirable too was it that he offered himself to the angel who was smiting the people, saying: 'This flock, what has it done? Let your hand be against me and against my father's house!' By which deed he was straightway judged worthy of the sacrifice, who had been esteemed unworthy of acquittal. Nor is it any wonder if by such an offering of himself for the people he obtained pardon of his own sin, since Moses too, by offering himself to the Lord for the error of the people, even blotted out the sins of the people. Has he then covered his sins or not? But who would deny this, since this very prophet has taught that iniquities are remitted, sins are covered, are not imputed by the Lord? That his sin was remitted to him he himself taught, as it is written:

'I acknowledge my transgression, and I have not hidden my injustice. I said: I will declare against myself my injustice to the Lord, and You forgave the impiety of my heart.' If he said 'I will declare,' and merited pardon before he declared it, how much more, when he declared concerning himself, saying: 'My iniquity I acknowledge,' was every sin remitted to him? Although specially concerning this Nathan the prophet too answered: 'And the Lord has put away your sin.' Therefore he both merited the remission of his iniquity and covered it with charity, and covered his sins, and covered them with good works. Nor was the sin imputed to him, because there was in him no guile of malice, but a lapse of error; and then because it was not the heat of wickedness, but the shadow of a mystery.

And yet he confessed his transgression, he acknowledged his iniquity, he saw the laver, and he both saw and believed. He loved much, so that by his exceeding charity he might cover anyone's error. But now let him defend himself; for he wrote the fiftieth psalm to that history. And though he subjoined the history of his former deeds — as concerning the betrayal of Doeg the Syrian, whose title is in the fifty-first psalm, and of the Ziphites, which seems to be comprised in the title of the fifty-third psalm — he set before them this history which is later, since Doeg betrayed him, and the Ziphites likewise, before the prophet David received the kingdom, seeing that, fleeing King Saul, he was still wandering an exile through various hidden places; whereas Bathsheba he took when he was already reigning.

Why then does the order of the psalms not correspond to the order of the deeds? Because he wished not so much the order to suit the order as the mystery to suit the deeds, and therefore he wished to fit the number of remission to this history. For the number fifty is the number of remission, as the Lord Himself taught us in the Gospel, saying: 'A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty. When they had nothing wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which of them then loves him more?' And you have in the Law that the recurring number of fifty years is called the Jubilee, a most celebrated return, in which debts are voided, the liberties of the Hebrews are confirmed, the restorations of possessions are made.

This number we joyfully celebrate after the Lord's passion, when the debt of all our guilt has been remitted and the bond cancelled, free from every tie; and we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit coming upon us: on the day of Pentecost, while fasting is suspended, praise is uttered to God, the Alleluia is sung. In short, the father too of that girl, who through the violence of intercourse had suffered while betrothed to no one, receives fifty silver double-drachmas, and she herself shall remain in wedlock. By this number, therefore, even vices are turned into grace. Great then is the psalm, by which we are taught how penance is to be done: 'Have mercy on me,' he says, 'O Lord, according to Your great mercy. And according to the multitude of Your compassions blot out my iniquity.'

'Wash me thoroughly from my injustice, and cleanse me from my transgression. For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my transgression is ever before me. Against You only have I sinned, and done evil before You, that You may be justified in Your words, and may overcome when You are judged. For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in transgressions did my mother bring me forth.' Who of us, even if he confess his transgression, would not think it ought rather to be touched upon lightly than to be repeated? Who would repeat it a second or a third time? See in how many verses so great a prophet sounds forth his sin, how no verse is without the confession of his transgression.

He heaped together all his iniquities at once, joining injustice to them by his confession, coupling his transgressions to his sins, and by often repeating them he rightly begs for great mercy; and not for great mercy only, but also for a multitude of compassions. What sin, then, would such lamentation not wash away, what guilt would a prayer of this kind not cleanse? He, for a single sin, beseeches a multitude of compassions; we, for many sins, scarcely believe that his mercy is to be implored even once. We read, moreover, that by his great power and his exalted arm he delivered his people out of the land of Egypt, when he led them across the Red Sea, in which there was a figure of baptism.

If, then, there was great power in the figure of the sacraments, how much greater is the mercy in their reality. Rightly too is a multitude of compassions sought there, where there is a multitude of sinners. 「Wash me thoroughly from my injustice, and cleanse me from my sin.」 He asks not so much to be washed more often as more fully, that he may rinse away the filth he has contracted. He knew that according to the Law there were indeed very many aids to cleansing, but none full and perfect. To that perfect thing, therefore, by which all righteousness is fulfilled — which is the sacrament of baptism — he hastens with all his intent, as the Lord Jesus himself teaches. For when he had come to John, the Baptist said: 「I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?」 The Lord answered: 「Permit it for now;

for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness.」 But after Christ was baptized, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him as a dove, and the Father from heaven set his seal upon the Son, all righteousness was fulfilled. Therefore the prophet says: 「Wash me thoroughly from my injustice;」 for great squalor and a stain that is not slight is taken away not by a little, but by much washing. But if anyone wishes to understand it otherwise, he may shape his understanding thus: the divine word cleanses, our confession cleanses — the one while it is heard, the other while it is uttered; good thought cleanses, honorable action cleanses, and likewise the practice of good conduct. Cleansed by these, each one more easily draws in and, as it were, seizes into himself the splendor of spiritual grace.

In short, the precious dye does not gleam at once from a single dipping of the fleece; but first the fleece is steeped in a common juice, then by various other juices its natural appearance is repeatedly rinsed out and often changed with a different color, and so afterward the staining of a fuller dipping, as it were, is applied, that the truer and more perfect brilliance of purple may glow red. As therefore there is a great quantity of murex-shells in the dyeing of purple, so in the laver of regeneration there is a multitude of heavenly compassions, that iniquity may be blotted out. And so he who is washed thoroughly is cleansed from injustice and from sin, and lays aside a certain ingrained habit of sinning bred by his pursuits and ways, and forgets its character.

And he is well washed from injustice or iniquity, which is the greater, and cleansed from sin, which is the lesser. And therefore he added: 「Because I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me.」 It is no small thing that each one should acknowledge his own sin. And therefore he said above also: 「Who shall understand his faults?」 — that is, who is so great as to understand them? Just as that other passage: 「Who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord?」 Not indeed no one, but few; for he who can acknowledge can turn aside, can choose what he should follow.

Very many glory in their downfalls and think those things to be praiseworthy which are criminal — if a man has defiled another's bed and stormed the affection of a chaste woman, if by some fraud he has altered the resolve of a widow; another thinks it to be a mark of manliness to live by the murder of a man, by the ambushes of robbery, and by plunder; some judge it to be wisdom to circumvent and deceive. Of these none can say: 「Because I acknowledge my iniquity,」 but only he who can grieve for what he has done, condemn what he has transgressed, whom his own vices prick. Whence the prophet also says: 「The things which you say in your hearts, on your beds be pricked with remorse.」

Most horses, when they have fallen, are wont to toss themselves about, and those whom the fall did not injure are weakened and broken by their own thrashing. Others — such as the nature of Greek horses is said to be — when they have either been thrown in the chariot-race or fallen by chance, are by no means wont to move themselves, but keep a certain discipline of quiet and patience. If the fall did them no harm, their stillness profits them; certainly the mishap is not aggravated. Are not those to be reckoned worse than dumb animals who toss themselves about in their own disgraces and think it a badge of manliness where there has been the downfall of a crime? Therefore it is said as to a dumb beast: 「You have sinned, be still.」 Whence he beautifully added: 「And my sin is ever before me.」

For the fool delights in his own errors and, by overshadowing old sins with new ones, thinks himself to be helped, and therefore exults in his crime. But the wise man judges his transgression to be against himself, and reckons that the downfalls of his own faults stand against him like hostile battle-lines opposing him. Whatever resounds, whatever rebukes, his own fault ever meets him; whatever is said or read, he thinks it said against himself; whatever anyone points at, he thinks himself marked out by the nod, by the eyes. If he feasts, if he reflects, if he prays and entreats, his own error is ever before his eyes, and at every moment his fault beats upon his conscience and lets him neither rest nor forget. Like a stern censor it harasses him with perpetual terror.

All things therefore are adverse to him who is displeased with himself, who is his own accuser, his own witness, and finds no place to flee, since he himself drives and goads himself on. But this belongs to a good mind — to feel the wound of sin. For those who are without pain do not feel the bitterness of the wound, which is the mark of an incurable sickness; but those who are pricked by some pain, just as they do not lack the sensation of pain, so neither do they lack progress toward health. For where there is the sensation of pain, there too is the sensation of life; for to feel is the mark of vital vigor and of a gift.

Whence he too who does not acknowledge his error is mad, raves, is foolish; but he who acknowledges surely comes to his senses, does not reject the remedies of health, but restrains himself, repents of his fault, ever thinks upon it, and by thinking condemns himself. But the righteous man, at the beginning of his speech, is the accuser of himself. He who accuses himself is righteous; he who is righteous is sober, is sound. The righteous man knows not how to favor himself, knows not how to bend the rigor of judgment even concerning himself, shudders at the recollection of his own downfall, blushes at the error he has committed, and dreads, fears, and recoils from all memory of it;

he judges himself a heavy burden to himself, flees from himself as judge, and dares not entrust himself to himself, because he thinks none more grievous to himself than him from whom he cannot lie hidden, whom he cannot deceive, whom he finds no way to flee or avoid — unless he deny himself and take up the cross of the Lord. Great is the power of a guilty conscience, great are its torments. Eve and Adam were afraid, and when they heard the voice of the Lord walking in paradise, they longed to hide themselves, though no one sought them. Cain too was afraid, lest anyone whatsoever who found him should kill him. Thus he bore the sentence against himself, that he was worthy that no one should pardon him. Whence he well says: 「And my sin is ever before me,」 that is:

without any interval the recollection and the very image of my error assails me. Consider how it confounds us when we have transgressed in anything, how it assails our eyes, how it ever recurs to memory. He who is ashamed of what he has committed knows not afterward to commit anything of the kind, at which he might similarly blush. Now iniquity precedes, sin follows. Iniquity is the root, but the fruit of the root is the fault. Whence iniquity seems to be referred to the depravity of the mind, sin to the lapse of the body. Iniquity is the graver, as it were the matter of sins; sin is the lighter. In short, iniquity is remitted through the laver, sin is covered by good deeds and, as it were, overshadowed by other works. Whence this same prophet well says above:

「Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.」 For love hides error and covers a multitude of sins. Much love also remits even sins themselves, as it is written of the woman who poured ointment upon the Lord: 「Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much.」 There are also those who take it that the first little verse is about the laver, the second about repentance. By which grace Peter too, who had previously been baptized, is questioned, after he was seen to have denied the Lord: 「Simon, son of John, do you love me?」 He says to him: 「Yes indeed, Lord, you know that I love you.」 And again he is questioned: 「Simon, son of John, do you love me?」 And again he answers: 「You know that I love you.」 And a third time he is questioned:

「Simon, son of John, do you love me?」 And he was grieved because he said to him a third time: 「Do you love me?」 and he says to him: 「Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.」 And it was said to him three times over: 「Feed my sheep; follow me,」 as to one who had covered his sin by exceeding love. Nor is it idly that after the confession of exceeding love he is bidden to rule the people — he who even when troubled had not lost the knowledge of how to rule himself. This we have said concerning the grace of love, in that it covers sin. In short, some have said that the threefold questioning about love was made for this reason: because there had been a threefold denial, so that the threefold profession of love, so often repeated, might blot out the downfall of the threefold denial. There follows: 「Against you only have I sinned.」

He was indeed a king, himself bound by no laws, because kings are free from the bonds of transgressions; for they are not summoned to punishment by any laws, being safe under the power of their sovereignty. Against man therefore he had not sinned, to whom he was not bound as liable. But although safe in his sovereignty, yet by devotion and faith he was subject to God, and knowing himself to be subject to his law, he could not deny his sin, but like a guilty man confessed it with bitterness — he who knew that he was held by greater bonds, because he owed greater things, since more is required of him to whom more has been entrusted. We may also understand it thus: 「Who judges me, since all are under sin?」 In short, the Lord says concerning that adulteress: 「He who is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her.」

And no one stoned her. This therefore the prophet says: 「Against you only have I sinned,」 you who alone are without sin. But he who is liable to sin cannot judge her as a sinner. For every man is inexcusable who condemns in another the very things which he himself does; for in that wherein he judges another, he passes sentence on himself. 「Against you,」 he says, 「have I sinned, and done evil before you, that you may be justified in your words and overcome when you are judged.」 「Against you have I sinned,」 you who provoked me to the pursuits of virtue, who instructed me in your law. 「Against you only have I sinned,」 you whom alone the hidden things of thoughts and the secrets of the mind do not deceive. 「And done evil before you,」 you whom holiness alone befits. We shun the testimony of man, yet in your sight we commit things that are unworthy.

It is an affront to man to behold disgraceful deeds; we know that God is the judge of all, and with him himself as witness we sin; and yet in these things the Lord our God is the more justified, because our injustice commends God's justice, and our lie celebrates the truth of God. For let God be true, but every man a liar. 「That you may be justified in your words.」 The words of God are full of truth and of justice, and therefore whatever the Lord has spoken concerning human frailty is true, because their heart is bent toward wickedness, inclines toward fraud.

And because he defined it in this, that there is no man who does not sin — for all have turned aside and become unprofitable — therefore he overcomes when he is judged, since by the downfall of all he proved whatever things he judged concerning our deceitfulness. Therefore if we say that we have committed iniquity, we justify God in his words; but if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar; yet it is impossible for him to lie. It is therefore manifest that we are all under sin. How great a crime, then, that a man should deny himself to be a sinner, since, as far as in him lies, he seems to convict and refute the lie of the most high God — who is so moderate and patient that he overcomes when he is judged. For he comes to judgment: God says:

「My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I grieved you, or in what have I been troublesome to you? Because I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and delivered you from the house of bondage, and sent before your face Moses and Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak devised against you.」 He sets before your sight his benefits one by one, that you may be judged, as it were, concerning those things which you ought to have kept, so that you may the more become guilty, you who could not stand by the divine benefits. 「What have I done,」 he says, 「to you?」 As though he sets himself up as the accused and you as judge. 「Or in what have I grieved you?」 He does not deny the charge of an offended countenance, if you have been grieved with God as the author. 「Or in what have I been troublesome to you?」 He confesses the affront of an interruption, if it was reckoned too troublesome:

He adds his benefits, for whose sake the one who was reckoned ungrateful was not ashamed. In this case too consider how the Lord offered himself to David himself to be judged, that he might overcome; for Nathan says: 「Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul, and gave you all that belonged to your master, and gave his wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel itself, and, if these are few, I will add to you. And why have you held the Lord as nothing, that you should act wickedly in his sight?」 Confronted by the recollection of these things, when he saw that he was the inferior when he is judged, he says: 「I have sinned against the Lord.」 Thus he justified the Lord, who did not dare to deny his sin. We may also understand it thus:

He justifies the Lord who confesses his sin. In short, in the Gospel you have it that the publicans justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But John the Baptist administered a baptism of repentance. And he who performs repentance does not deny his transgressions. Therefore, because David always had his sin before himself, he surely did not deny what he also blushed at, did not deny what he also acknowledged. And by not denying, he surely bore the repentance of the error he had committed, and so by confessing his transgression he justified the Lord and was himself justified by the Lord. For the Lord is justified when his justice is proclaimed and pardon is sought from him. At once both he himself justifies the one confessing and is justified in his words, as it is written:

「Declare your iniquities, that you may be justified.」 There follows: 「For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in transgressions my mother bore me.」 Who performs repentance with such great feeling? He lay stretched upon the ground, melted into tears, did not taste food, renounced the bath. What more shall I say of the rest — that he abstained from royal adornment and retinue? He added the confession of his iniquity, and transmitted it to be sung through the whole world for perpetual ages. 「Behold,」 he says, 「I was conceived in iniquities, and in transgressions my mother bore me. Turn your face away from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Cast me not away from your face, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation.」

Before we are born, we are stained by contagion, and before the enjoyment of light we receive the injury of our very origin. We are conceived in iniquity — he did not express whether his parents' or our own — and in transgressions a mother brings forth each one. Nor did he here declare whether the mother gives birth in her own transgressions, or whether there are already some transgressions of the one being born. But see whether both are to be understood. Neither is the conception free from iniquity, since the parents too are not without lapse. And if not even an infant of one day is without sin, much more are those maternal days of conception not without sin. We are therefore conceived in the sin of our parents, and in their transgressions are we born. But the birth itself also has its own contagions, nor does nature itself have one contagion only:

The marriage is indeed good, the union holy; but yet let those who have wives be as though not having them. The marriage-bed itself is undefiled, and no one ought to defraud the other of it except perhaps for a time, that they may have leisure for prayer; yet according to the Apostle no one has leisure for prayer at that time in which he exercises the use of that bodily union. And to a menstruating woman the cloth is defiled, nor can she in those days of her purification offer sacrifice. And the days of childbirth of a woman who has given birth, and very many others, are kept apart from sacrifice, until by the lawful rite the one who has given birth is cleansed. Therefore, in him whom the Lord willed to have no contagions of such an origin, the Lord says to him:

「Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you, and set you a prophet among the nations.」 Who is so great a one, to whom such great things have been entrusted? Was it Jeremiah? But he indeed was not set as a prophet among the nations, but in Judaea at that time, and now even among the nations which have believed in the Lord Jesus. Yet see whether it is said to him who, before he was born of the Virgin, already long since was and ever was, and was at work even when established in the womb of Mary, and was so holy that he sanctified his prophets — in whom alone both the virginal conception and the birth were without any defilement of mortal origin.

For it was fitting that he who was not to have the sin of bodily lapse should feel no natural contagion of generation. Rightly therefore did David tearfully lament in himself the very defilements of nature, because in man the stain begins before life. While he says these things and confesses the foulness of sins both special and common, suddenly the splendor of truth and the brightness of spiritual grace shone forth upon him. For having transcended the shadow by his prophetic spirit, he beheld the very mysteries and sacraments of the heavenly things, whose figure Moses prefigured in the Law.

Wounded therefore by the wound of love and seized by the desire of searching out the truth, he stretched the gaze of his mind into higher things, and looking forward into things to come, he beheld in Christ the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; he foresaw the sacrament of baptism, and marveling at the grace, he suddenly cried out, saying: 「For behold, you have loved truth; the uncertain and hidden things of your wisdom you have made manifest to me.」 Not uncertain mysteries, because they are certain, nor uncertain secrets and arcana of wisdom, but not made manifest. For this is what it signifies, that they had been made manifest to none; for what eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it ascended into the heart of man, this God has prepared for those who love him. Seeing these things therefore he says:

Behold, now not in shadow nor in figure, not in type, but in truth the open light shines forth: behold, now I behold the truth, I acknowledge the splendor of truth, now, O Lord our God, I venerate you with greater affection. 「For behold, you have loved truth;」 not through a mirror, not in a riddle, but face to face you have shown yourself to me, O Christ; in your sacraments I find you. These are the true sacraments of your wisdom, by which the hidden things of the mind are cleansed. And so now, joyful and secure, because the fullness of wisdom had flashed upon him, he says to the Lord: 「You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; you shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.」 He well both does not empty out the sacraments of the Old Testament and teaches that the evangelical mysteries are to be preferred.